Court delays contract killing sentence rulings

Three people found guilty of the contract killing of a Katherine man will have to wait until next year to be sentenced.

A Northern Territory Supreme Court jury has found 20-year-old Zak Grieve and 25-year-old Christopher Malyschko guilty of the murder of Ray Niceforo in October last year.

Mr Niceforo's former partner Bronwyn Buttery, 53, was found guilty of manslaughter by way of provocation after she paid her son Malyschko $15,000 to organise the killing.

Mr Niceforo, 41, was bludgeoned to death with a spanner and his body dumped beside a road.

Today, the Crown and the defence made their closing submissions to sitting judge, Justice Dean Mildren.

Buttery's lawyer Rex Wild QC told the court his client was a kind and gentle woman who had suffered enough after spending four years in an abusive relationship with the victim, and 13 months in custody.

He asked the judge to release her from prison, saying she was no threat to the community.

The lawyers for Malyschko and Grieve argued their clients should be exempt from the mandatory 20-year non-parole period for murder.